Horse was taking over. I couldn’t do it as Murphy Cody. I couldn’t do it as an American. So — I became a Thai, Pai became a Thai. I married a Thai, killed as a Thai; as far as everyone is concerned, I
‘And we spread the word on the street through Sy that Thai Horse was Taisung’s operation,’ said Earp.
‘Killed two birds with one stone,’ said Cody. ‘Fong lost face and put the finger on Taisung. The only edge we had was that Taisung never told Fong who we were.’
‘The whole deal was done with phone calls,’ Earp said. ‘The little creep never showed his face.’
‘He was watching you, though,’ said Hatcher. ‘Up until the day Windy Porter was killed. Were you behind that?’
Cody shook his head. ‘Tollie Fong.’
A silence fell on the room for a few moments. Cody seemed out of talk. Hatcher picked it up. ‘I can guess what happened after that,’ he said. ‘Fong thought Wol Pot had double-crossed him, so the little bastard had to get out of the country. That’s when le blew the whistle on Murph.’
‘And Sloan sent you in to find me,’ said Cody.
‘Look, forget Sloan,’ Hatcher said. ‘He’s out of it. He took Porter’s body back to the States.’
‘Bad guess, soldier,’ said Earp. ‘Sloan is in Bangkok right now. In a place called the House of Dreams in Chinese Town.’
‘That’s bullshit,’ Hatcher said.
‘He’s an opium head,’ Cody said. ‘The House of Dreams is an opium house. We’ve been watching him since the Wol Pot contact. He sometimes goes there for days a time.’
‘Want to see the place?’ said Earp. ‘It’s a Chinese junk used for moving produce into the city.’
A Chinese junk, thought Hatcher, remembering the address on Wol Pot’s passport that had been an empty pier. And his profession: produce sales.
‘I appreciate your loyalty,’ said Cody, ‘but the man is a junkie, no better or worse off than Johnny Prophett.’
‘And guess who owns the junk?’ said Earp.
‘Tollie Fong,’ Hatcher said.
‘Correct.’
‘So you think Fong is blackmailing Sloan?’ Hatcher said.
‘It makes sense. We’ve seen him go there half a dozen times. And we’ve seen him leave. We’ve got a pretty good little intelligence network, Hatcher. You think it was luck, walking into the Longhorn and tumbling on to the regulars. The only thing lucky about it was that you hired Sy. He was supposed to be following you.’
‘Don’t tell me he’s one of the regulars.’
‘He makes good tips bringing tourists to the Longhorn,’ said Cody. ‘He’s also one of the best drivers in Bangkok. He was helping out.’
‘So you knew where I was every minute,’ Hatcher said.
‘Tucked you in, got you up, said Earp. ‘Tumbling on to Wol Pot was a real stroke, though.’
‘And you were following me?’ Hatcher said to Cody.
Cody nodded. ‘We didn’t know for sure whether you knew where Wol Pot was or not. You could have been meeting him.’
‘Why didn’t you kill me, too?’ asked Hatcher. ‘You thought about it.’
Cody nodded again. ‘You’re right. I just couldn’t do it. We decided when Max called about the tiger to get you down here and check you out.’
‘And what
‘All of us would have put a bullet in you,’ Wyatt Earp ,and emphatically.
Hatcher appeared troubled. ‘There’s something missing here,’ he said. ‘Tollie Fong never had trouble recruiting mules before. Why would he suddenly be relying on somebody like Wol Pot?’
‘He’s moving a lot of junk from the hills to Bangkok and from there to the States,’ said Earp. ‘He’s got at least a thousand keys of ninety-nine pure hidden in Bangkok right now. He needs to move it — a lot of it, and fast.’
‘And we know where it is,’ Cody said.
Hatcher shook his head slowly. ‘If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, forget it. It’s not your problem.’
‘But Fong is,’ said Riker.
‘Forget Tollie Fong,’ said Hatcher sternly. ‘The triads’ll hound you until they kill all of you. Stop now. Just let Thai Horse vanish into the ‘woodwork. Fong won’t bother you anymore.’
‘You don’t really believe that,’ said Cody.
‘Look, you say he’s involved in something big. He doesn’t have time to look for you or Thai Horse. And if you kill him, it’ll never stop. I killed Fong’s father in 1976 and he’s still after me.’
‘I say we hit him, take him out once and for all,’ said Earp. ‘Solves your problem and ours.’
